This month, Ms. Marvel, ships twice as issue number twelve comes as a Valentine’s Day special where Jersey City’s latest and greatest superhero must contend with the mischievous Loki. While not the most perfect of issues and all around skippable, it’s a humorous romp for Kamala Khan and what is hands down one of the strangest team ups in recent memory.
After being forced to flee from the Inheritors at every turn, the army of Spider-People finally gets a chance to take the fight directly to their pursuers. This is the final battle, the last stand against an unstoppable force. Can the Spiders save themselves before the Inheritors carry out their master plan?
She-Hulk #12 Written by Charles Soule Art by Javier Pulido Colors by Muntsa Vicente Published by Marvel Comics She-Hulk #12 ties up pretty much every loose end in Charles Soule’s run while also leaving the character open for more stories by he, Javier Pulido, and company or for another creator to jumpstart their run. This is really the best way a run …
Darth Vader #1 Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Salvador Larroca Colors by Edgar Delgado Published by Marvel Comics With a skilled artist at the reins, a silent sequence can be a comic’s deadliest weapon. Artist Salvador Larroca uses several such sequences to show his “hero’s” rage, willpower, and sheer brutality in Darth Vader #1. The story follows Darth Vader on a “diplomatic” mission to …
Having a black character with a conscience and a heart was a pretty big thing for the late 60s in comics: a refreshing human portrayal compared to a lot of other supporting characters that existed at the time. He truly plays such a key role in the development of Peter’s life that his name deserves to be compared to the likes of Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Robbie is one of those characters that cause the likes of not only Peter to smile, but the reader as well.
Peggy Carter’s mission into the heart of the USSR isn’t off to a roaring start. Already her old friend Howard Stark has incurred the wrath of an enigmatic alien force, and that’s not including the shady girl, Tania, posing as Carter’s contact. With the assistance of a mercenary by the name of Woodrow McCord, they make their way into the Russian motherland to uncover the source of an alien beacon. Naturally, they’re in for more than they asked for.
For obvious reasons, both the original Marvel series and Dark Horse’s various Star Wars titles generally tended to shy away from direct confrontations between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Such encounters were the province of the films, and even after the cinematic saga had (seemingly) ended, there was, presumably, a desire to not water down their existing interactions too much by writing in a ton of off screen battles. Both characters were staples of the Expanded Universe, but rarely interacted with one another directly.
One year after the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men teamed up for the first time in “The Trial of Jean Grey,” the two teams reunite to contain the mystical artifact known as the Black Vortex. After glimpses and whispers of the artifact in the pages of Legendary Star-Lord, does the power of the Vortex justify the massive amount of characters in play here? And is there enough intrigue and mystery to last thirteen issues?
Avengers #41 Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mike Deodato Colors by Frank Martin Published by Marvel Comics With a cover that is an exact copy of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s The Ultimates #1, Avengers #41 brings the good ol’ (or not so old) Ultimate Universe into Jonathan Hickman’s epic multiversal vision for the Avengers and Marvel Universe as a whole. It also deals with the …
This week G. Willow Wilson concludes her inaugural arc on the excellent Ms. Marvel. For the last year, Kamala Khan has been slowly unraveling the manic plot of the Thinker, a humanoid parakeet with a massive intellect and equally large ego. These latest issues especially have launched Ms. Marvel from being a diverse yet small curiosity into a prideful rallying point for millennial angst as the Thinker’s true goal is to use young people as a cheap source of energy. It’s now up to Kamala Khan and her improvised team of Jersey City kids to stop the Thinker once and for all.
Hawkeye #21 Written by Matt Fraction Art by David Aja Colors by Matt Hollingsworth Published by Marvel Comics In the penultimate issue of their Eisner Award winning run on Hawkeye, Matt Fraction and David Aja bring all the threads of Clint Barton’s story together as the Track Suit Vampires (who still say “Bro” every other word) try to evict the …
Ever since since it’s introduction in 1984’s Secret Wars, the Venom symbiote and it’s offspring have been shrouded in mystery. Despite it’s popularity, the origin of the symbiote species has never been definitively explained. That all changes in Guardians of the Galaxy #23, when after causing it’s latest host, Flash Thompson to lose both control and consciousness, and attacking and possessing his new teammates, the Guardians of the Galaxy, it commandeers their ship and finally makes a sojourn to the fabled symbiote homeworld. But is it worth the 30 year wait?
Doug “Dougie” Braithwaite is one of a few comics artists who can make pencils look like the beautiful strokes of a paintbrush. This skill made Braithwaite a perfect choice for DC Comics’ 2007 Justice maxiseries, which was an homage to the old Super Friends vs. Legion of Doom. He pencilled the comic while Alex Ross co-wrote and painted over his pencils. Braithwaite has …
The penultimate chapter of “Spider-Verse” begins with the ragtag band of Spiders scattered and lost. However, having perhaps finally found a safe refuge from the Inheritors, they find a Spider-Totem tied to Peter’s personal history unlike any other. But can an army of Spider-Men fight back against the greatest enemy of all – a plot so wrapped up in itself it forgets it’s own potential?
Superior Iron Man returns to spinner racks and this time with one of the most politically charged and hard hitting issues to date. If the idea of Tony Stark donning Apple styled armor and being hailed as San Francisco’s technological messiah wasn’t on the point enough, this issue puts on the brass knuckles and starts giving out political gut punches. Tony Stark unveils the next stage of his Extremis 3 program, Iron Sight, a mass of flying camera drones with the private information of everyone in the city with specific programing to protect only those who can afford Extremis in the first place. Yep, all within the span of five pages, Tom Taylor sounds off against drone warfare, street monitoring, excessive police action, corporate control of law enforcement, online privacy, and data mining, and he doesn’t give an inch. This sort of brutal takedown is the breed of futurist thinking which lesser writers either lack the intelligence or gall to do. Yet Taylor does it as an opening act.
Fantastic Four #642 Written by James Robinson Pencilled by Leonard Kirk Inked by Karl Kesel Colored by Jesus Aburtov Published by Marvel Comics Fantastic Four #642 does some things very well, like depicting action scenes, actually doing something with the much maligned Heroes Reborn Universe, or having a couple third act plot twists. However, most of the story is rooted …
Star Wars #1 marks the return of the Star Wars license to Marvel Comics following parent-company Disney’s acquisiton of the Star Wars brand and the expiration of Dark Horse Comics’ license to the property (Dark Horse had been publishing Star Wars comics since 1991, while the first Star Wars comics launched at Marvel in 1977 with an adaptation of the first film which led to an ongoing series that ran for 110 issues; both sets of stories have since been rebranded as non-canonical “Legends”), the first of four new series (for now) to which Marvel intends to apply their not-unimpressive skills at comic book making to the Star Wars brand.
When we last saw our intrepid spacer, Peter Quill, he was in a middle of a holo-date with his (very) long-distance girlfriend, Kitty Pryde, when he was kidnapped by the villainous Mister Knife’s enforcers, the Slaughter Squad. Never one to let something like a traumatic history with outer space stop her, Kitty steals a spaceship from the Avengers and flies out to rescue Peter – but not before Mister Knife reveals his true identity to Peter – J’Son, the former king of Spartax and Peter’s father!
Star Wars #1 Written by Jason Aaron Art by John Cassaday Colored by Laura Martin Published by Marvel Comics The biggest new release of 2015 (so far) is Marvel’s first endeavor into Star Wars comics for the first time since the 1980s. There are loads of variant covers, quite a few release parties, and rumored …
Picking up immediately after the big reveal of last issue, part 4 of “Spider-Verse” begins with Solus, the father and apparent leader of the Inheritors, kidnapping Mayday Parker’s baby brother Benjy, proclaiming him to be the “Scion” foretold in their prophecies. After the deaths of several Spider-People, and a very literal deus ex machina, our heroes manage to escape by the skin of their teeth. But all this running is useless unless they can come up with a plan to put the Inheritors to bed for good.
Following the airing of Marvel’s Agent Carter miniseries, super spy Peggy Carter stars in her own outing on the printed page, Operation S.I.N. The year is 1952, Peggy has settled into a lone suburban life until eccentric entrepreneur/inventor Howard Stark invites her on an adventure right in the capital of the Soviet Union and what they discover is something that could destroy the very center of Moscow itself.
If there’s anything that can be said on Marvel Comic’s recent approach to the character of Ant-Man, it’s that it’s awkward. Despite being a founding member of the Avengers, Ant-Man has never been a big enough draw to support a long term solo series. Because of this, he’s often overlooked (in any incarnation) and lives mostly in the shadow of his Avengers or other super science teammates. He isn’t a high profile member of any section of the Marvel Universe as say Thor comes packaged with Asgardian adventures, Captain America is bundled with all sorts of political espionage and World War II pulp action, or Iron Man being part of the super science scene. This public perception really sunk in when he was absent from the lineup of the massively popular Avengers film. Even now, it seems Marvel’s awkwardly looking at its feet and trying to make up for whatever small complaints there were that Hank Pym wasn’t yet part of the Cinematic Universe. While the same studio will pump money into making non-comic fans excited for characters completely alien to them with Guardians of the Galaxy, there’s a complete lack of zest when trying to market an Ant-Man movie.
X-Men #23 Written by G. Willow Wilson Pencilled by Roland Boschi Inked by Jay Leisten Colors by Lee Loughridge Published by Marvel Comics After recently signing an exclusive contract with Marvel, award-winning Ms. Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson begins her “Burning World” arc on X-Men, a comic that was launched a couple years to focus on an all female X-Men squad. The lineup for X-Men #23 is …